Wednesday, January 21, 2009

madrid

it's about time this got movin'

I live in Spain now.. well, until June 2nd, and then I don't know where i'll settle. I've got college applications for transfer that I have neglected, and now the crunch is tightening.
I live in Madrid, on the edge of three neighborhoods (barrios): Malasana, Chueca, & Chamberi. Each takes about 5 or 10 minutes to walk to. Madrid is a city of 4 million people in city center, and about an extra 4 million in the city general. 8 million in all. i think this screwed me over when i went to see jeremy enigk play the other night... it had sold out before i even arrived. as partially conciliatory, i drank an irish coffee with friends and played card games till 2 am.
Malasana: the rock and roll district of madrid. When the dictatorship of franco train wrecked, malasana was the social liberation. Everything that is experience is to be lived; like kerouac, people burn brightly like fireworks... unfortunately, like kerouac the also run out of gun powder. I don't think the barrio ever made it out of this weird cultural revolution it had in the 80's. rock and roll kids, drugs, music... it's all here. Nothing opens till midnight, and nothing closes until 10. some of the nyu kids say it feels too much like brooklyn, and that bothers them. but i think i like it.
Chueca: used to be a really run down neighborhood until some gay businessmen took things to task. Narrow streets, weird people everywhere, and bars offering everything from dragqueens, servers in whitee-tightees, punk rock holes and even the average joe bar. chueca is great. vitality.
Chamberi: it's no chueca, and it's no malasana. it is a little quieter, but still has a reputation for bars, movies, and all sorts of shopping stuff. 

everyday is hard. If i manage to understand five things on a restaurant menu i start feeling big headed... that, or i just get overwhelmed by the wealth of choices. 
cerveca = beer. chepeta = shot. kebab = delicioso
hungry? just buy kebabs from the dirty turk shop down on the corner, i do this partly because they already know me by name, and mostly because it is the cheapest thing in town.

i was on the news last night. i went to an airing of obama's inauguration, and it came about (mainly through the sharing of cheetos with a camera man) that 5 nyu kids got interviewed by the local madrid news station. i just saw myself on the tv an hour ago. i think i need to shave.

i need to tell more stories... i was in barcelona. did you know that? i drank wine with brasilenos everyday until i only wanted water or ginger ale... and i ate the penis of a suckling pig in segovia (no joke). Tomorrow i am going to get a lecture about skipping class (there was no way that "Urbanism in Madrid" was going to prevent me from watching the inauguration with hundreds of crazy americans around). of course i took an obama shot... like many people, i am not yet fully in the obama camp; just waiting to see what will happen. the guy deserves a chepeta though.

this post is too scatterbrain. email me questions and i'll address them on this blog. apologies for errors... learning spanish and living in spain is really destroying my english. i think in spanish grammar, use the simplest of words, and mimic my instructors (who don't speak much english). consequently, i am starting to sound like a foreign five year old. ouch.

yours,
Jeffrey

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